Hit and run crash kills moped driver | Crime

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WALKER, Mich. (WZZM)- Witnesses say a suspected drunk driver had to know he hit a moped in Walker and was dragging it down the road into Grandville.

They say the wreckage wedged under his vehicle was gouging the road and sending sparks into the air.

"He knew something was under his car," insists Grandville resident Josh Smith. "How could you not know it?" He wonders.

"There were pieces of moped all the way down the road," adds Grandville neighbor Pamela Solden.

Just after 1 a.m. Wednesday, 19-year-old Tony Bloomquist was driving his moped home to Grandville after finishing his shift at Sonic in Alpine Township. He was on Wilson Avenue in Walker, about halfway home, when police say he was hit from behind by a vehicle driven by 21-year-old Matthew Nawrocki of Grandville.

Bleyenberg says she got out of bed and was at her window when a second car came down Wilson and hit Bloomquist, who was lying on the pavement.

"It went thump, thump," she recalls. "It was like a bag of something. Then we watched a third car come by and that one slammed on her brakes and swerved. She just missed it. She quickly turned around to shine on the body so other people coming would slow down or stop."

The headlights illuminated the still body of Bloomquist, but his moped was gone. Investigators say it was jammed under Nawrocki's vehicle. It finally fell off on White Street in Grandville, about three miles from the crash scene.

"I looked at the moped and the seat was actually forced into the handlebars," says Josh Smith. "I would describe it as scissors. I mean, the back and the handlebars went straight up."

Once his vehicle was free of the moped, police say the suspected hit and run driver proceeded on to his nearby home and called 911 to report the crash. He was in jail Wednesday night, facing homicide, hit and run and second offense drunk driving charges. Nawrocki was still on probation for driving drunk last year in Rockford.

Walker police haven't said anything about a second driver who may have hit Bloomquist and failed to stop. It's not clear if they are searching for another suspect.